Tuesday, May 23, 2017

I did not grow up dancing. I am not a dance mom. But once upon a time about 3 years ago we let Mckinley take a dance class and she loved it. And has been asking to take dance ever since. We finally gave in again and signed her up at Jive where her cousins go. She started in January and they just had their performance, make that FIVE performances, last weekend. A little intense for my liking, but what do you do?

The concert was put together so well. Each number was a different occupation. Mckinley's class were train conductors.

She knew her dance really well. She was still so nervous the first couple of times she performed but finally by about the 4th performance she really loved it and was excited, not nervous. Now she is excited for next year. Oh boy.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

So, about 23 years ago I met this girl named Gabby. She was my only LDS friend in Australia. We lived there from when I was 11 till I was 14. Anyway, we became best friends and our friendship has lasted the entire 21 years since I moved back from Australia. She has come to visit me three times now, once when I was in high school, once after my mission, and now! I hadn't heard from her for about 2 years and all of a sudden she emailed and said she was coming to visit. What a fun surprise!

She came over the day of Mckinley's birthday party with her husband Eric, and we had so much fun sitting and chatting with them for a couple of hours.

This is the last time I saw her, 11 and a half years ago, and now.

After Eric had to fly home to Australia to get back to work, Gabby was able to come to my house and stay for two nights, and we had an entire day to spend together. It was so fun! We got all caught up, and even got to watch a couple of our favorite movies together.

The kids were soooo excited to have Gabby stay with us. Especially Tyler. The first night she came, she didn't get here till the kids were already asleep. So the next morning when they woke up bright and early, as always, I told them she was here, and Tyler asked, "When is she going to wake up?" Ha ha. They kept asking me if she was still with us if they didn't see her for a second. It was adorable.

I seriously couldn't have asked for more. Well, maybe one more night would have been great, but I took her to Park City Saturday morning to meet up with her friend for the last leg of her trip before she goes home to Australia. Thank you so much for coming Gabby!!!! It was amazing to see you.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

So last year Tyler and Kallie decided they wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for their birthday but it didn't happen. So Mckinley has been talking about going there for her golden birthday for months, so we knew we had to make it happen. I talked to Brandon's dad to ask him where to get coupons and he decided to just take the whole family again, which was so much more fun than just going alone. The kids had an absolute blast! They love that place, and we are so grateful Ross is so generous to get them an unlimited supply of tokens and pizza. I brought a cake and we sang happy birthday one last time! It was quite the birthday for Mckinley this year.

I can't believe Mckinley is 7 years old. She is such a talented artist, and an absolute angel. We feel so lucky to be her parents and have her in our family. I don't know what we would do without her!

Mckinley's birthday was on Sunday. She got breakfast in bed (of course) and then opened presents before we went to Church.

We bought her a bike for Christmas that we ended up not giving to her and just saving for her birthday. I'm so glad we did! Now that she learned how to ride a bike without training wheels on a smaller bike, she is good to go with this bigger bike. Perfect timing!

She got sung to in Church two weeks in a row, ha ha.

We had a dinner over at Brandon's parents' house and we sang happy birthday to her with her leftover cake there.

She filled out this poster for school for her birthday and no surprise, she spent hours coloring every last inch of it. She chose to bring Oreos to school for her treat.

Mckinley has been so excited about celebrating her golden birthday, turning 7 on the 7th. We made a lot of big plans and seriously had so much fun celebrating.

First we started out getting her first pedicure. We went to Royal Nails in PG and they were packed and we had to wait 30 minutes even though we had an appointment so that was a little annoying, but it was fun and they did such a good job on her toes, which was the most important thing to me.

For years I have been wanting to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. In fact, I may have gone to it years ago, but I have the worst memory. Anyway, Ross got free tickets and offered to take work off and babysit while us girls went. It was wonderful!

Some of the tulips had seen better days and were at the end of their life, but it was still beautiful and so nice to walk through the gardens.

Karen, me, Jessica, and Shannon.

Ava came with me and slept in the stroller the entire time we were there. We went to lunch at Rumbi afterward and had such a nice time.